Robot 6

Sidekick Quests: a webcomic that’s also an RPG

If you’ve been inside more than a few comic stores, you’ll realize that it’s more than just comics — role-playing games are a frequent presence, sometimes overshadowing the comics themselves. And a new webcomic is bringing those two like-minded worlds together in a story that’s both a comic and an RPG. James Stowe’s Sidekick Questsfollows a group of adventurers who set out to save King McGuffin’s daughter from the Spiked Knight. The princess’ name? True McGuffin.

Do you see where this is going?

Launched in March, Sidekick Quests has built up steam — and pages — with it’s once-a-week updates and managed to forge a bond between the worlds of comics fans and RPGers. In addition to doing the comic, Stowe is selling PDFs outlining how to play a Sidekick Quests RPG, and also offering to do commissions for fans of their characters.

“[World of Adventure is] a high-fantasy setting meant to invoke classic sword-and-sorcery stories and prepare new players for later adventures in worlds filled with dungeons and the occasional dragon or two,” Stowe explains. “The parallels between Sidekick Quests and that other incredibly popular fantasy Role Playing Game is intentional.”

Like any good comic or RPG, Sidekick Quests has a great origin: The concept came out of Stowe’s intention to introduce his 8 year old son and his friends to Dungeons & Dragons. Combining his years of RPG experience witih his drawing ability, he sucked them in and when he posted the results on his blogs, fans came on board too. Originally going under the moniker “D&D For Dads,” Stowe wandered into a great side business illustrating characters for their own RPG campaigns. The success and warm wishes he had from that prodded him to pursue Sidekick Quests as its own endeavor.